Rana Plaza

After it was named in a lawsuit filed by victims last week, J.C. Penney wants people to know that it had no supplier relationships with factories housed in the building that collapsed in Bangladesh two years ago, killing more than 1,000 people. Victims and families of victims of the Rana Plaza building collapse have filed suit against Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, The Children's Place and the government of Bangladesh. When the eight-story building collapsed on April 24, 2013, 1,129 people were killed and about 2,515 were injured. Many of the victims were women and children.

Wal-Mart, J.C.Penney, The Children's Place and the government of Bangladesh have been sued by victims and families of victims of a garment factory collapse that killed more than 1,000 people two years ago. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, claims the retailers and the government were aware of the unsafe conditions. When the eight-story building collapsed on April 24, 2013, 1,129 people were killed and about 2,515 people were injured. Many of the people were women and children.

Jeans giant Gap fell victim to a web hoax on Tuesday, with a fake corporate website set up to shame the retailer for its response to Bangladesh worker deaths. The convincing-looking GapDoesMore.com surfaced to coincide with the annual Gap Inc. shareholder meeting, where the San Francisco clothier celebrated its recent decision to boost minimum worker wage to $10. The site, still live as of

A year ago last week, more than 1,100 factory workers died when the eight-story Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed into a heap of bricks and fabric bolts. Those investigating the rubble after the tragedy found clothing labels from Western retailers in the ruins of the building, which had been home to a handful of factories operating with varying levels of safety and scrutiny. This time last year, as the death toll continued to climb, Canadian fast-fashion brand Joe Fresh was one of the first to act, sending representatives to Bangladesh to investigate the building's collapse.

When Sarah Labowitz arrived in Bangladesh's capital city of Dhaka this past February, it certainly didn't look like nine months had passed since the factory collapse that claimed 1,129 lives. Outside the ruin of the eight-story Rana Plaza building, the streets remained covered in mountains of twisted metal and rubble. Bright bolts of fabric still sat where they'd landed on April 24, 2013, among the bricks and rags. "Rana Plaza is still overwhelming in the magnitude of its tragedy," said Labowitz this week, having returned from Bangladesh.

Inspectors came and went from a Wal-Mart-certified factory in Guangdong Province in China, approving its production of more than $2 million in specialty items that would land on Wal-Mart's shelves in time for Christmas. After the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh in April killed 1,129 workers, the world's biggest retailers agreed to tighten inspection standards and upgrade safety measures. But unknown to the inspectors, none of the playful items, including reindeer suits and Mrs. Claus dresses for dogs, that were supplied to Wal-Mart had been manufactured at the factory.